Chapter 9

A man in a rain jacket carrying an umbrella is gliding through the air during a raging storm. Water falls to the ground like bullets and obscures the landscape, but the man rushes, laser focused on his mission.

Magnanimous Man: Information was stolen from inside my mansion… This will not be tolerated

Magnanimous Man: It will not be forgiven!

These words echoed through the man’s head. This man is Blackmore. A dedicated deadly assassin currently on a mission for his boss, the most powerful man in the world. Something was stolen from his boss, and Blackmore was tasked with finding the thief.

Blackmore dashes through the air jumping from raindrop to raindrop through the outskirts of Kansas City, thanks to his stand "Catch the Rainbow" Blackmore can easily traverse the baron dessert with ease by manipulating rain to stop in place or transferring his own body through the rain either all at once or piece by piece.

Blackmore: Hmm?

While gliding through the air Blackmore notices a woman hiding behind a rock.

Blackmore: She seems to be carrying something long wrapped in white cloth. Could that be...

Blackmore immediately stops and stares at the woman with a blank emotionless gaze. Then just as quickly as he stopped began thinking to himself again.

Blackmore: She seems to be carrying something small, locked in a metal box.

In but a moment, Blackmore’s jaw liquifies away from his person, flowing down through the droplets in the air and reappearing beside the woman's arm.

Blackmore: 'Scuse me...

Blackmore: What are you doing out here behind this rock?

Blackmore: What do you have there?

The woman does not acknowledge Blackmore as he peppers her with questions. Instead, she kept her gaze on the lookout for something.

Blackmore: Yes, that... That box that you carry close to your chest...

Blackmore: ... Ms. Lucy Steel...

Quickly, Blackmore clenches his jaw down on the woman's flesh...

30 minutes earlier

Tatiana recovers from the shock of seeing the figure out the window. She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes for a few seconds to stop and get a feel for her surroundings. She opens her eyes again and looks out the window to see that the figure is no longer there.

Tat: I see. I'm not at a complete disadvantage, then.

Tatiana bites her thumb and shoots off her brain to think of a plan to tackle the coming obstacle. While she does that a ghostly figure forms behind her.

Tat: Of course, this will all come down to how well I can handle this and...

Tat turns to the ghostly figure behind her. The figure solidifies completely.

Tat: ... It depends if I can use my own stand effectively in such a short time.

The stand hovers inquisitively in the air. Its head is in the shape of a television set, with eyes that resemble camera lenses. Two blue streaks loop around the head with both streaks lined up perfectly with an eye. The stand has gray porcelain skin and its body resembles that of a mechanized mannequin with clear visible exposed joints.

Tat: I just awoke this ability, but I already know how it works. It's like breathing, something I know how to use by instinct.

Tatiana, with her stand following right behind her, begins to make her way towards the open door leading to the room she just ran out of and closes the door, then reopens it. The room on the other side is completely different now. The door now leads to an empty square room with a closed door on the opposing side that’s elevated 3 or 4 inches off the ground.

Tat: Checks out. The room changes everytime the door closes.

A drop of water falls onto Tatiana’s head. Tatiana wipes off the water that fell on her head.

Tat: And it looks like I won’t be “inside” much longer.

Tatiana looks over the room she’s in one more time. She counts four doors in the room she’s in 3 closed 1 open, and one in the empty room that is closed

Tat: All right!

Tatiana’s stand hovers proudly behind her as she comes to understand everything.

Tat: I can see victory now!

Present Time

Blackmore quickly clenches his jaw down on Tatiana's flesh, and upon making contact, Blackmore’s teeth shatter with blood pouring out of his mouth.

Blackmore: AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH

While howling in pain, Blackmore brings his mouth back to his body. While fighting off the pain, he looks back at who he believes is Lucy Steel, only to find her fleeing the scene.

Tat had made her way through an open door, desperate to catch the assumed thief.

Blackmore: Ms. Steel... You… Should not… have done that.

Blackmore pursues Tatana through the door and into a cramped, square room. On the other side, Blackmore sees Tatiana peeking her head out of the other door, with only her cold eyes being the only part of her face visible.

Tat: It's probably futile to say this; you’re literally a dead man walking, but I would advise you to turn away and give up this pursuit.

Behind Tatiana, her stand pokes its head out of her silhouette like a phantom, catching Blackmore off guard.

Blackmore: Hold on; you shouldn’t have a stand. Unless you… You have it, don’t you?

Tat: Who knows? If that’s such a shock for you, then I suppose Lucy Steel never had a stand. Thankfully, however, I’m not Lucy Steel.

Blackmore seemed confused by the response Tatiana gave. With a brief sigh, Tatiana answers.

Tatiana: Although, I suppose that’s beyond you. That’s fine. Like I said, it was futile.

Blackmore immediately rushes towards Tatiana, Transferring his body through the rain and appearing behind both her and her stand. As he traveled, Blackmore took droplets of rain and created a thin layer of water right over Tatiana.

Blackmore: You will not distract me with your ramblings, Miss Steel.

Blackmore brings the thin layer of water down like a guillotine on Tatiana’s shoulder to render her defenseless, Blackmore intends to bring her back alive to her employer.

Tat: You were given your warning.

The thin layer of water shatters on contact with Tatiana, and her stand flips around, delivering a clean, devastating blow to Blackmore, square in his bleeding jaw.

Blackmore: HOW…?

Tatiana continues to stare blankly into the small, empty room.

Tat: Dream Theater

Tatiana begins to dissipate into a haze of TV static, flickering wildly and formlessly, while her stand looks back at Blackmore directly in the eyes.

Dream Theater: Had you found me sooner, you would have had me. I would have been at your mercy and would most likely be dead by now. However, now that I’ve realized the full potential of my own stand, I’m able to reach new heights of power and control. Especially while I’m in this house.

Blackmore: Which piece is it?

Dream Theater: What?

Blackmore: Which part of the corpse did you obtain~? What gift did you receive from it~?

Dream Theater: …

Dream Theater: Tell you what. How bout you come see for yourself?

Dream Theater darts down the hall and turns the corner.

Blackmore: Lucy Steel, there’s no point in running~

???: Do not disappoint me, Blackmore

Blackmore freezes. He recognizes this voice.

Magnanimous Man: You wouldn’t disappoint me, would you, Blackmore? Out of everyone, you are my most trusted assassin, after all.

This voice. It was his boss.

Blackmore: No… why is he…

Magnanimous Man: Be wary, this thief is crafty and more than likely has tricks up their sleeve. Go! Onward, Blackmore, however…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In a circular room where the wooden roof stretches upward to form a cone. A door that was left ajar cautiously creaks open. The creaking of the door and the pounding of the rain hitting the wooden floor reverberate throughout the room. Blackmore enters the room cautiously, looking around. On the other side of the room, a body that's been shot lies slumped over on a dresser.

Cautiously, Blackmore moves into the room and towards the center of the room. As Blackmore steps onto the rug, he feels something off about the floor underneath.

Blackmore: Hold on. The floor here feels wrong. Isn’t this a wooden floor?

Magnanimous man: Fool! Pay attention!

Blackmore’s head is pulled up to see a safe hurtling towards him, and just as quickly as he saw it, he leaps away back towards the door he just came from.

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Dream Theater: Good dodge.

Blackmore quickly turns his attention over to an open window, where Dream Theater nonchalantly hovers toward the center of the room.

Dream Theater: However, I was under the impression that you wouldn’t appear again Madness

As Blackmore begins to move, Madness grips Blackmore’s shoulders and glares daggers at Dream Theater

Madness: This is my house! I can be wherever I please!

Dream Theater: True, but apparently you’re not aware of everything that is happening.

Gunshots ring out from behind Blackmore, and three bullets fly out of Blackmore and into the dresser across the room. Blackmore stands dumbfounded for a few seconds before grabbing his poncho and pulling it back to reveal a vacant space where his torso should be. Madness quickly pivots his head to look for the source of the gunshot, but all he sees are white and black specks quickly dissipating at the edge of his vision.

Madness: I see. I was right to tell Blackmore to use his stand “Catch the Rainbow” and leave his torso outside. Her stand, it’s doing something. It caused the gunfire and most likely brought down that safe as well-

Blackmore quickly swivels his head back to where the safe fell to get a hint at his enemy's ability.

Madness: Hold on? No! That doesn't-

Dream Theater: Well, I’ll be off now~

Blackmore: ????

Dream Theater: Given how shaken you are, I doubt you’d follow me, but that chase was a cute attempt. Nice try, big guy~

“Dream Theater” begins to quickly rise out of view outside the window. Blackmore, with visible anger in his eyes, quickly follows.

Blackmore: Lucy Steel! You will not escape from me!

Madness: FOOL! IT’S A TRICK!!!

Blackmore ignores Madness and continues his charge out the window, into the world of Madness, and climbs up the raindrops to chase after Dream Theater.

Madness: There’s something wrong with the safe and the rug it fell on. The safe fell on top of the rug, so the rug should be below the safe, not above!!!

Floating above the circular room was an open window. Dream Theater darts into the window leading into a dimly lit room. Following closely behind, Blackmore also makes his way to the window. As Blackmore approaches, an ax comes hurling at him from the window. Forming a thin layer of rain into an outstretched hand, Blackmore effortlessly knocks the ax away.

Blackmore: So long as there is rainfall, I cannot be touched. I stand above everyone else! Even him!

Madness: Arrogant fool!

Blackmore and Madness enter through the lone window into an unlit room. It was in complete shambles, with crumbling walls, exposed wooden supports, and all manner of of debris obscuring the floor of the room. At the very back, Tatiana sits on the floor, back against a wall, with another ax raised to be thrown.

Blackmore: You are wasting your time fighting back, You have lost. Look around you…

Tatiana shifts her eyes around and notices the raindrops suspended in place, hanging like glass marbles in the air.

Blackmore: These droplets will cut you as if they were diamonds. They can’t be moved unless I allow it.

Madness: Don’t get sloppy now! You tried striking her earlier with a blade of water, and it shattered on impact. Get it together!

Tat: I think you deserve it more.

Blackmore: ???

Tat: What I took. Don’t you think you deserve to have it?

Madness notices a tarp under Tatiana that looks cleaner than everything else in the room, and the position she’s in suggests that she’s holding it in place.

Blackmore:...

Tat: I’ll give it to you without a fight. I admit defeat, just come and take it already.

From the corner of its eye, Madness notices a piece of wood thrown off to the side. It’s destroyed, but the damage seems more recent than everything else in the room. Finally, Madness notices that the wood has hinges on it. It’s small, but it’s without a doubt a trap door ripped from its hinges.

Madness: Do not be deceived, you damned fool! She is going to attack you and retreat into the door she’s hidden beneath her.

Tat: I’m at the end of my rope here. There’s nothing more I can do. I underestimated you and got ahead of myself.

Madness: IDIOT! IDIOT! IDIOT! DO AS YOU'RE TOLD, PUPPET!

Madness tightens its grip on Blackmore’s shoulders to keep him in place, but Blackmore rips away from Madness’s grip without paying it any attention and moves towards Tatiana.

Blackmore: I… I do deserve it!

Tat: “Dream Theater”

Dream Theater materializes behind Tatiana and opens a lens in its forehead. Immediately, a snow of black and white specks begins to form and becomes an ax hurtling towards Blackmore’s face. Surprised, Blackmore tries to use the rain to deflect it like before, but instead the ax rips right through the droplets and proceeds to cut cleanly through Blackmore’s left eye, tearing a portion of his skull clean off.

Blackmore: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!

Blackmore continues to howl in pain and forgets about everything around him. The rain that was previously held in place falls to the ground and, just as soon as Tatiana notices it, falls through the floor through the covered trapdoor into a new room below.

Madness: I will not be undone due to your incompetence! I cannot lose! I will not let you make me look bad!

Madness grabs Blackmore by the neck and forces him across the decimated room and down the trap door Tatiana escaped through.

Blackmore: AAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!

Madness: Be silent! You aren't dead yet! You won’t die yet! Time is still on my side!

Both Madness and Blackmore hit the floor below into a wide hallway branching off into several directions; however, Madness observantly spots Tatiana heading down what looked to be a dead end.

Madness: She’s cornered. There’s nowhere for her to go…

Tatiana pulls a pen from her pocket and places it atop her finger. Madness, unsure of what's happening, carefully watches, trying to decide if it’s safe or not. Tatiana then gives the pen a flick, and it begins to spin on top of her finger for a few seconds before slowly stopping. Tatiana slowly puts her hand up in the air, pen in hand.

Tat: “Dream Theater”

Dream Theater materializes behind Tatiana, and a compartment opens up in Dream Theater's head, revealing a camera lens.

Tat: So long as it happened within the last hour-

A pen, identical to the one Tatiana spun atop her finger, appeared midair and began to spin

Tat: Dream Theater can create a physical replay of any object. It will, without fail, follow the exact same path the original took. Even if I put a Diamond rod firmly in the way of this pen, the rod would shatter with ease. It’d be as if the rod were made of brittle plastic.

Madness: (Prepare an attack, Blackmore.)

Tat: I can even see where things used to be, almost like a sixth sense.

Madness: (This aggravating chase is finally at an end.)

Tat: Unfortunately, there seems to be a glaring weakness with Dream Theater…

Blackmore: S…Something feels wrong.

Tat: Dream Theater is unable to make more than one replay at a time.

Madness: The ax from before was just her stand! It wasn’t the real thing! You won’t die yet! Kill her now!

Blackmore weakly gathers droplets and hurls them towards Tatiana in an attempt to shred her to ribbons. Seeing this Tatiana immediately deactivates her stand and rushes directly towards both Madness and Blackmore.

Madness: Why? There are no doors for her to quickly escape, and this is without a doubt the real one. Then why would she…

Madness stops mid thought and notices something different about the room they are in. Something that he had missed in the heat of the moment.

Blackmore: Why… is it… so… hot?

The droplets hit Tatiana and harmlessly splashed onto her face. Too late, Madness finally noticed that there was no rain in the room they were currently in, and the heat was sweltering.

Tatiana reaches behind her, pulls a revolver out of her pants, and unloads the revolver into Blackmore's chest.

Blackmore: hnnnnng…

Blood mists outward with every blast, and Blackmore crashes to the ground with Madness, furiously watching as Blackmore dies a slow death.

Tatiana: It was surprisingly easy to figure your ability out after a bit, and naturally I wasn’t going to idiotically hope that my stand’s replays would count as a Winchester weapon, and once I noticed the rain was in fact connected to this dead man’s stand, all I had to do was find this hallway.

Tatiana: Sarah actually had several rooms with fireplaces in close proximity to one another. While they were lit, it would basically turn this hallway into a sauna with how hot it got. Rain couldn’t appear here since it would quickly evaporate.

Madness looks at the gun and realizes the gun back in the circular room was, in fact, a replay of the gun Tatiana holds now.

Madness: You filthy harlot!

Dream Theater Rushes out and grabs Madness by the head.

Madness: YOU…

Tat: We had a deal. I beat your guy. Get to it and let me out.

Madness was filled with inexplicable anger. He did not have to let her go, nor did he intend to. He fully expected Blackmore to kill her swiftly. He wasn’t obligated to do anything.

Tat: Or perhaps you’re just as low as the witch Winchester.

Madness: I… I… You…

Blackmore: Which… corpse… part…

Tat: What?

Blackmore: Holy… Corpse…

Dream Theater reactively tightens its grip on Madness, and Tatiana puts all her focus on Blackmore.

Tat: Hold on, the what? Hey, don't die yet! What the hell are you talking about?

Madness: A deal is a deal!

Tat: Hey wait!

With a slick, grimy grin, Madness's hands clap, and the room changes instantly into that of a lobby.

Tat: Sore goddamn loser!

Woman's Voice: I KNEW IT!

Tat, startled, looks at the angry voice.

Guide: I knew someone had slipped away! I knew you three were lying.

Axel: I've never seen her before, maybe she just snuck in.

Guide: I recognize her!

Roo: Well, then, I’m sorry to say, but the fault lies with you.

Axel: YUH! What kind of hack guide lets a poor kid get lost in this big ol house?

Savant: Negligent!

The tour guide looks as if she wants to scream at the top of her lungs but does everything in her power to hold it back.

Guide: Thank, you, all, for, joining, us, today. Have, a wonderful, day!

The guide points to the door leading outside, with everyone leaving awkwardly

Axel: You’re lucky no one was hurt bitch!

Savant: (Overselling it, dude.)

Tat: …

Outside, Axel, Savant, Roo, and Tatiana head out of the Winchester house and make their way to the parking lot

Roo: So were you successful?

Tat: Naturally.

Tat nonchalantly shows off the unopened metal box containing the next photo

Axel: Good shit! So where we going next?

Tat: Actually, if we could find a spot to chill and eat, that would be awesome.

Savant: Shouldn’t we just keep up the momentum?

Tat: This is going to be a long trip. We shouldn’t be too hasty. There's nothing wrong with taking a breather every now and then.

Roo smiles, pleased to hear this response from his friend

Roo: Yes, I believe that is wise

Tat: And Roo

Roo: Yes?

Tat: What exactly is the holy corpse?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back inside the Winchester Mansion, in a break room, a woman in her mid thirties wearing a skimpy cheerleader outfit sits on a desk, speaking seductively to someone else in the room

Cheerleader: So she got out of your sight but then appeared later with a little black metal box at the end of the tour, yes~?

Guide: Yes. She got lost in the manor, like I thought.

Cheerleader: Could you identify the four kids in question if you saw them again?

Guide: Yes. Easily.

Cheerleader: YAY~~~~~! You did a good thing reporting this, honey! You’ll be coming with me, sweetie?

Guide: Yes.

A man trudges into the breakroom, ready to finally take his lunch and take a thirty minute nap.

Man:God, I can finally get some sleep, maybe I can make it through the… OH MY GOD

A headless body lays motionless on the bloodied ground while the woman in the cheerleader outfit stands in front of the man, grasping a dripping head by the hair.

Cheerleader: You know him, sweetie?

Guide's head: That’s Gabe. He’s this lazy dude who always ditches work to find a place to sleep.

Gabe: WHAT THE FUCK WHY WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT

Blood, guts, and bones scatter and splatter around the break room, with the man formerly known as Gabe lying tattered, torn, and lifeless on the floor.

Cheerleader: Now…

The woman pulls her head up to her face and boops her nose like a pet.

Cheerleader: Let’s get you to the boss. He’s gonna love what you have to tell us!

To Be Continued